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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (63414)	8/24/2004 12:34:38 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793552

Benedict fires two professors bucking effort-based grading (Greenville News -AP) Benedict College has fired two professors who refused to go along with a policy that says freshmen are awarded 60 percent of their grades based on effort and the rest on their work's academic quality. Benedict President David Swinton says the Success Equals Effort policy gives struggling freshmen a chance to adapt to college academics. He expects students to improve - the formula drops to 50-50 in the sophomore year and isn't used in the junior or senior year. But he says he's "interested in where they are at when they graduate, not where they are when they get here." Students "have to get an A in effort to guarantee that if they fail the subject matter, they can get the minimum passing grade," Swinton said. "I don't think that's a bad thing." Science professors Milwood Motley and Larry Williams defied that policy and Swinton dismissed them. Neither had tenure, which could have protected them from firing. Motley, a veteran five years at Benedict, said he didn't like concept from the beginning but went along with it grudgingly. Then he faced an academic dilemma of passing a student he thought had not learned course material. In his case, giving a C to a student with a high exam score of 40 percent was too much. "There comes a time when you have to say this is wrong," he said. Motley said he started in the Spring awarding grades strictly on academic performance. But the historically black college "told us to go back and recalculate the grades, and I just refused to do it," he said. A letter in June, informed Motley and Williams they were fired. Williams would not comment to The State newspaper for its story on the situation. A faculty grievance committee voted 4-3 vote to reinstate Motley, but Swinton overruled that, dismissing Motley's claim that his academic freedom had been violated. Well, clearly, this isn't an academic freedom issue; this isn't a debate over contending theories in science. It is, however, a manisfestly idiotic policy. Indeed, aside from a student's performance on exams and other graded events, it is not clear to me how it is that a professor would assess "effort." Further, effort is an entirely meaningless concept if it doesn't translate into performance. If the goal is to encourage experimentation and remove penalties for failure early in a student's academic career--reasonable goals, I think--a more honest approach would be to remove grading altogether. I know that years ago MIT had graded freshman classes on a Pass/Fail basis. The would be a much more honest solution than this one. outsidethebeltway.com

To: LindyBill who wrote (63414)	8/24/2004 1:29:27 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793552

The rice wound. He admits it in his book. Can't get around it. "Slowly we turn and bit by bit!" You are right. He admits nine days after getting that PH that he and his crew had yet to be fired at. Rassman said he got rice in the ass from throwing a grenade at some rice. That alone ought to get the two of them a stupid award. Who uses a grenade to destroy rice? Only dumb and dumber. There was no combat action so no PH is warranted. Under Integrity we now have: The searing memory of Cambodia at Christmas lie admitted to. The 1st PH phony award admitted to. We also have TV statements by 2 members of the Kerry campaign that Kerry was in Cambodia 3-4 other times yet not a single Swiftee (not even from Kerry's own boat) support that. I believe the searing Cambodia story collapses completely soon. Kerry should donate the hat to the Smithsonian. The third PH is also in danger. Under Honor we have three sources for Kerry's 1971 phony statements. Everyone keeps pushing the Senate testimony. Yet the real damage that Kerry does to hisself is in the NBC Meet The Press tape and the Cavett show tape. I believe we will see more on them soon. We also have Hanoi Hilton survivors talking about the torture they suffered because of Kerry's false statements. I would expect to see more on that as well. Every Vet is going to know that if one PH is phony Kerry was AWOL for 8 months of combat duty. These details may not play well to school teachers in the Bronx but I am certain the 28 million strong Vet community and their families are paying close attention. This is truly amazing to watch. Kerry really is committing suicide by pulling one fingernail at a time. uw